For the last week and change, Bungie has let an impressive number of users explore the first major area in their upcoming future shooter MMO Destiny. The Destiny Beta has come to a close so Bungie can fine tune their machine in order to release the best possible game in September, but it seems like a safe bet to say that this game is now at the top of nearly every wish list.

Welcome to the future. Far, far into the future, where the physical constructs we take pride in today are nothing more than hulks of twisted metal rusting out in the backyard of the universe. A future where we as human beings have taken to the stars, discovered a vastly superior alien force to befriend and learn from, and have thrived thanks to this relationship.

Technology has evolved far beyond our current level of understanding, such that even death in some cases is a temporary thing. Your character starts out as a lifeless corpse resurrected by a tiny floating robot, who explains that you have been dead for a long time and must now become a Guardian.

Setting aside some of the obvious follow up questions to this event, like who your character was before dying in the middle of what appears to be a traffic jam, or why this Ghost has decided it was ok to bring you back to life and turn you into a super soldier, what happens next is truly fascinating. From this point forward you are a Guardian, whose job is to help fight several alien races that work for a force known as The Darkness in order to preserve the current way of life in your corner of the universe. This is kind of a rough way to establish a main character, but before you are in danger of thinking too hard about your station in life it’s time to kill some things.

Destiny starts out by asking you to choose between three character classes, Hunter, Titan, and Warlock. As starting points go, there’s not a ton of difference between these three classes. By the end of the Beta, however, when you’ve had time to push your character to the Level 8 cap for the game, the classes become significantly more distinct.

The Warlock classes are all about rapid shield regeneration and a faster, lighter touch. These are unfortunate stereotypes for the mage-style characters, but the combination of devastating offensive and rapid regeneration works well. The Hunter class is all about the surgical strike, and is a fantastic middle character for the game. This class is designed to be a sort of universal soldier, and Bungie did a great job establishing that balance. The Titan is, as the name suggests, the tank character. This class is subtly slower but makes up for it by being capable of delivering massively powerful melee attacks and experiences less recoil when firing larger weapons.

Each class has the same basic configuration, but the subtle tweaks grow out to become significant differences in how they are played. Bungie has done a remarkable job with this balance so far, which was plain to see in the PVP arena called The Crucible. In the hours spent playing the different arena maps established for the beta, there was never a time where I felt one class had a clear advantage in gameplay. Strategy and good old fashioned FPS skills were still the best way to ensure dominance in these games, with obvious advantages offered occasionally in the form of heavy ammo drops and vehicles scattered across the maps.

Playing the core game turned out to be deeply rewarding. Bungie has lost absolutely none of their ability to strike that magic balance between active combat and running through levels, and it couldn’t be more obvious that the team has seriously improved when it comes to level design. The best parts of the campaign so far are the parts that send you through areas where you are fighting both the Fallen and the Hive, as the gameplay violently shifts between future shooter and survival horror to really drive home the differences in your opponents. You know when you find a darkened hallway or a poorly lit set of steps that things are about to jump out at you, and it immediately sends you to the edge of your seat when the fighting starts again.

The MMO aspect of the game is something I think Bungie deliberately left out in this beta. While you have the ability to swap weapons, upgrade armor, and locate random grind-style missions that are all hallmarks of an MMO, it couldn’t be more clear that there’s so much more going on here. From the ability to purchase new ships to occasionally finding items that obviously belong to some sort of crafting ability, there’s MMO elements here yet to be revealed. I look forward to seeing what Bungie has in store for us, as I think it will be a big part of the repeat gameplay appeal.

If I had to say that there was one thing about Destiny that impressed me the most, it’s the way all of these individual pieces connect together. You get exactly what you want out of Destiny, whether that means nothing but online FPS matchmaking or an absolutely beautiful MMO, or even just a fun story for you to run through and then move on to the next experience. This is a game whose sheer size and availability will bury games like Titanfall, whose creators felt that not enough people would play a story mode to justify the expense.

It’s not easy to lump this game into just one genre, and even though many of the mechanics borrow heavily from the Halo franchise Destiny is still a fantastic experience that is absolutely worth the hype it has received so far.